Top Business Process Misconceptions

What you need to know

The Industrial Era and the Information Age are over and their governing rules are passé. Leading in the Social Era requires a rethinking and reimagining of what can be. During her 20-year career, Nilofer Merchant has earned an impeccable reputation for her ability to guide both Fortune 500 companies and start-up organizations alike through impossible odds. An expert in creating value in the new era of innovation and social media, Merchant shares her unique business insights to help audiences understand the changes in their approach that need to be made in order to excel in the fast-paced, ever-changing world.
Merchant has worked for major companies like Apple, where she worked alongside Steve Jobs, and Autodesk, as well as startups during the early days of the internet. Today, she serves on boards for both public and private companies, and also lectures on innovation, board governance, and marketing at Stanford University.
As a speaker, corporations such as Symantec, Yahoo, IBM, Fortune’s Conference for Most Powerful Women, and many others have turned to her guidance to develop new product strategies, enter new markets, defend against competitors, and optimize revenues. Merchant has headlined alongside Malcolm Gladwell, Simon Sinek, Arianna Huffington, Margaret Atwood, among other inspirational individuals, and has delivered at global venues like TEDIndia; technology conferences like Web 2.0; corporate events like Cisco Partner Velocity events; industry venues like Parc’s Innovation series; national HR conferences galore; and local venues like TEDx.
Merchant’s insightful new book, 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra, was named by Fast Company as one of the Best Business Books for 2012. It follows her previous and bestselling book, The New How, on collaborative work.

Tim Rowland

Vice President and General Manager, Retail and Manufacturing

Lexmark

Tim Rowland

Tim Rowland is vice president and general manager, retail and manufacturing vertical for Lexmark’s Imaging Solutions and Services division. He is responsible for creation, sales, rollout and support of industry-oriented solutions and applications for Lexmark’s global enterprise customers. Tim has been with Lexmark since its inception in 1991. In previous roles, he was responsible for industry-oriented solutions and applications that help customers optimize workflow processes and increase productivity. Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech University.

Karen Bannan

Contributing Editor

InformationWeek

Karen Bannan

Karen is a veteran business writer and editor with a wide range of publishing experience. Her work has appeared in Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, MyBusiness Magazine, Government Computer News, Workforce Management, CFO, AdWeek, Crain’s New York, Time, and Crain’s BtoB. Karen, who has a M.A. in Magazine Journalism from New York University, has also written for virtually every woman’s magazine including Woman’s Day, Family Circle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents, Health, Fitness, and Shape. Her technology credits include five years on staff at Computer Retail Week, PC Magazine, eWeek, and Inter@ctiveWeek as well as countless other technology publications. Her beats include hardware, software, security, business process automation, social media, cloud and mobile computing, marketing, and the retail channel. Her technology work focuses on both the public and private sectors, and she has an extensive contact list of high profile C-level sources.
Karen’s editing experience includes a Forbes custom publication, a Rodale Custom publication for a financial services client, as well as United Business Media’s Smart Enterprise magazine. She has also worked extensively on custom magazines and other collateral produced by AARP, CDW, Imagination, Oracle Corp., McMurry, Federated Media, the National Federation of Businesses (NFIB), American Airlines Custom, and American Express Custom. She writes white papers, product briefs, case studies, microsites, newsletters, and feature stories. Karen is also a seasoned public speaker and presenter. She has moderated more than 200 webinars over the past few years, and has been called upon numerous times to act as an expert source, creating and presenting original webinar presentations.

Smart processes become more critical for information workers – sometimes called iworkers -- every day. In fact, processes matter as much if not more than strategies and metrics that are often tracked by Wall Street. When discounted, a lack of process actually makes executing strategies more difficult. However, when processes and strategy intersect, everyone wins.

For instance, research firm Gallup recently analyzed nearly 200 studies spanning 152 organizations and 44 industries in 26 countries. The results showed an uplift of every business performance number if people felt engaged through good processes. Profitability was up 16%, productivity was up 18%, quality was up 60%, and customer loyalty rose 12%, among other findings.

It’s very clear from this research that when solid workflows are in place, organizations can accelerate results and focus on what matters, becoming faster, more fluid, and nimble. Yet, according to best-selling author of Social Era Rules Nilofer Merchant, there are several misconceptions that are holding most businesses back – some of which are still taught by top business schools and managers.

In this webinar, corporate strategist Merchant will discuss what those myths are and how organizations can improve processes to bust out of them, resulting in increased employee satisfaction and a reduction in customer attrition. These processes can also lead to better strategies, results, and trust.

Attend this webinar to learn:

How to close the proverbial strategy/execution gap, or as Merchant calls it, the Air Sandwich

Why and how to lead when you’re not in charge How empowering employees and customers translates into higher profits

What a healthy culture has to consist of and how to build it using smarter and better business processes

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) provides businesses of all sizes with a broad range of printing and imaging products, software, solutions and services that help customers to print less and save more. Perceptive Software, a Lexmark company, is a leading provider of process and content management software that helps organizations fuel greater operational efficiency.Lexmark Privacy Policy